Building consents still trending upwards

Building consents are on the rise, with a 33% jump on the same time last year, even though the monthly change is slightly down.

The trend for building approvals has been rising for more than a year, Statistics New Zealand industry and labour statistics manager Blair Cardno says.

Building consents are one of the country's more important "leading indicators" for where the economy is tracking and, because the figures are based on hard data rather than from surveys, is also one of the more accurate indicators.

The data is, though, highly volatile and can jump dramatically from month to month.

March saw a 19.6% rise in consents on the previous month, while the latest figures - for April - are down 7.2% on March but up 33% on April 2011.

The reason this matters is the previous month, March 2011, saw the start of a sustained increase in consents.

The overall value of all building consents has risen 17% since March last year, Mr Cardno says.

The increase is not yet related to the Canterbury rebuild. The 33% rise over the same time last year is for all dwellings, including apartments, and although the Canterbury region features prominently it is not where the largest increase is.

The largest regional increase was Auckland, which saw approvals for 360 new dwellings, including 62 apartments, an increase of 101 on the same time last year.

Canterbury saw the second largest increase, with a rise oof 84 to 282 new dwellings. Most of the new work in Canterbury though is not yet earthquake related.

Earthquake-related consents were worth $28 million in April, whereas the overall value of consents was $78 million. For April, the value of all building consents was up 1.8% on the previous month, by $162 million to $8.979 billion.

The value of residential buildings is up 2.1% to $5.284 billion, while the value of non-residential buildings rose 1.4% to $3.695 billion.

Rob Hosking
Wed, 30 May 2012

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Building consents still trending upwards